Procrastination

The thief of time… and the thief of morale?

Procrastination is the thief of time. For whatever the reason, the procrastination of others is very frustrating to work with.

It’s a bit like driving behind a slow vehicle on a twisting road when you’re in a hurry. You really want to overtake but the conditions won’t allow it, so you sit there getting more frustrated until in the end you can’t stand it any longer and go for it. Was the space big enough? Hopefully but the risk was very high and the pressure remains: I’ve still got to make up the lost time.

Procrastination is not just the inability to make decisions. It is also appears as an inability to define issues correctly, to identify who is best suited to solve an issue, or to co-ordinate effectively the actions of the team. Procrastination is incredibly wasteful of resources and team enthusiasm. And it is often this last piece that many company owners and directors fail to recognise.

Delaying taking good quality decisions, drains the capability of the whole team. It slows down the pace at which businesses can and should move. In ever-moving markets, the ability to be nimble, to predict and act quickly is a hallmark of successful companies.

Growth happens through taking good quality decisions. Balanced decisions, using the right amount of data, insight and experience. However for many people growth is itself scary and unsettling. As a result people are often uncomfortable with change and put off making any decisions that aren’t obvious.

So, ask yourself, as you look at your objectives for this day or week, are you truly addressing the most important issues, or are you procrastinating?

Perhaps we should all re-read this article once a month – when we get round to it, of course!

Thanks to Neil Clayton at wiretimes.com for kind permission to use this article.